Archive

Bob Ciura: It’s a tough time for the retail sector. The industry struggled through a brutal first quarter, which included unusually harsh winter weather. Economic growth slowed down in the first three months of the year, which hurt retail, Read more…

After a sluggish Q1 with flat earnings on 3.3% revenue growth, retailers started showing strength from Q2. The improvement was far from great as earnings rose 2.6% on 5.5% higher revenues and some sector bellwethers Read more…

If you want to invest like billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn, you need to have full faith on the U.S. retail industry. Last week, Icahn along with his affiliates bought a 9.4% stake in the discount store retailer Family Dollar Stores Inc. (NYSE:FDO) for nearly $265.8 million. Read more…

Doug Short: The Advance Retail Sales Report released this morning shows that sales in May rose 0.3% month-over-month, down from 0.5% in April, which was an upward revision from 0.1%. Core Retail Sales (ex Autos) was up 0.1% in May, down from 0.4% in April, Read more…

Mitchell Clark: Straggling earnings reports are revealing more weather-related issues for specific industries (home improvement, for example), but several retailers have been posting really good numbers. Read more…

If there’s one indicator of the state of the global economy it’s consumer purchasing on the retail level. And if there’s one retail company to watch as a prelude to what comes next it’s always been Walmart. Known for low prices, low wages, and multi-billion dollar profits, Read more…

Retailers saw a weak Q1 with total earnings from 97.3% of the sector’s total market capitalization reported so far being flat on 3.3% revenue growth. Earnings surprises were predominantly negative for retailers, with only 43.9% of the companies beating earnings estimates, Read more…

Did you know that Family Dollar is closing 370 stores? When I learned of this, I was quite stunned. I knew that retailers that serve the middle class were really struggling right now, but I had no idea that things had gotten so bad for low end stores like Family Dollar. Read more…

Eric Dutram: As we all know, retail sales normally pick up on Black Friday, but this time retailers are displaying a rally ahead of Good Friday as well. U.S. retailers rejoiced the departure of the harsh winter in March as the group clocked a better-than-expected 1.1% Read more…

Doug Short: The Advance Retail Sales Report released this morning shows that sales in March rose 1.1% month-over-month, up from 0.7% in February, which was upwardly revised from 0.3%. Core Retail Sales (ex Autos) was up 0.7% in March following Read more…